Новости за 26.02.2016

Tony Burton, the veteran character actor best known for brief but memorable appearances as the no-nonsense trainer and corner man in the first six Rocky movies, has died aged 78. Burton's wife, Aurelian, said the actor died of pneumonia at a southern California hospital. Failing health had prevented him from appearing in Creed, the seventh Rocky movie. Sylvester Stallone is nominated for an Oscar for that film at Sunday's ceremony. In the first two Rocky movies, Burton is heavyweight champion Apollo Creed's trainer when Creed defends... Читать дальше...

Kosovo's parliament has failed to elect a new president in the first round of voting, which came after proceedings were disrupted when tear gas canisters were opened on the opposition benches. The main contender, foreign minister Hashim Thaci, got only 50 votes among the 81 politicians that were present. His opponent Rafet Rama, also from the Democratic Party of Kosovo, won four votes and 27 other votes were declared invalid. A candidate would need at least 80 votes in either of the first two voting sessions or 61 in the third to win. Читать дальше...

Police in suburban Cincinnati are on the lookout for a bald man they say has been stealing hair growth and memory aid products from shops. Mount Healthy police have issued an alert for "a serial thief" they say recently took $847 worth of Rogaine and Prevagen products from a Walgreens store in the city, just north of Cincinnati. Police are not sure if he is using any of the products himself but suspect he tries to sell them online or at flea markets. Mount Healthy detective Chris Jones told WCPO-TV that police are "scratching our heads at this... Читать дальше...

The Prime Minister deserves the same kind of condemnation at Konrad Mizzi because he is maintaining Dr Mizzi’s defence, Opposition leader Simon Busuttil said this afternoon. Dr Mizzi has admitted owning a trust in New Zealand and a company in Panama, a blacklisted tax haven. Speaking on Net TV, Dr Busuttil said Dr Muscat was still refusing to say when Dr Mizzi had set up his company in Panama because it did not suit him to answer the question. He said he was disgusted at what Dr Mizzi had done, at... Читать дальше...

Pope Francis met a group of children who helped him write his first kids' book at the Vatican today. The pontiff has penned weighty encyclicals and decrees, and now has taken a stab at the simpler side of his job with a book for children entitled "Dear Pope Francis". The book was a brainchild of Fr Antonio Spadaro, a priest and editor of the Italian Jesuit journal Civilta Cattolica who was the first person to interview Pope Francis after his election in 2013. Fr Spadaro brought the pope the 31 drawings... Читать дальше...

Come what may at the Academy Awards, Leonardo DiCaprio will have an Oscar - or at least a close replica of the coveted statue. Residents in Russia's Far East have made a statue for DiCaprio that bears close resemblance to the Oscar prize and is made from donated metals. Nearly 150 DiCaprio fans from the Yakutia region donated the 1.5kg of silver and 4g of gold to make the statue for the American, who is nominated in the best actor category for his role in The Revenant. One fan, Anna Ivanova, said "even if DiCaprio does not receive an Oscar... Читать дальше...

A 33-year-old Hungarian man and a 22-year-old woman were grievously injured this afternoon when they were injured in a traffic accident in Victoria. They are not in a critical condition. The police said the accident happened in Triq l-Arċisqof Pietru Pace corner with Triq Ġorġ Borġ Olivier at 4.15pm. The Hungarian was riding a Piaggio Runner and the woman was pillion rider. They were involved in a collision with a Landrover Freelander that was being driven by a 53-year-old man from Qala.

A woman bit down on a rare pearl while eating a meal of clams and other seafood at an Italian restaurant in Washington state. Lindsay Hasz and her husband Chris were eating at Montalcino Ristorante Italiano in Issaquah recently when she bit into something hard in her entree, KOMO-TV said. Ms Hasz said she was not sure what it was but put it in her pocket and went home to do research. She took it to a gemologist who determined it was a Quahog purple pearl worth about $600. Ted Irwin, of Northwest Geological Laboratory... Читать дальше...

Former Argentina captain Diego Maradona says longtime FIFA president Sepp Blatter and European soccer chief Michel Platini should have been given life imprisonment rather than six-year bans from soccer for ethics violations. The pair were suspended for eight years -- reduced to six this week -- for a payment of 2 million Swiss francs ($2.03 million) made to the Frenchman in 2011 by FIFA with Blatter's approval for work done a decade earlier. Both men deny any wrongdoing. "It seems like the FIFA ethics committee was wrong," Maradona... Читать дальше...

Refugees and other migrants pouring into Greece will be kept on Aegean Sea islands on ferries used as floating shelters, government officials said, as thousands who went before them find themselves stranded in increasingly desperate conditions following border closures in the countries to the north. Ferry companies and authorities on Greek islands have been instructed to limit the number of migrants travelling by ferry to the mainland, where thousands have been sleeping rough in parks and along the country's highways... Читать дальше...

The wholesale price of all local pork sold by the Pig Breeders’ Cooperative Society of Malta will be reduced by 10 cents per kilo of carcass weight from Monday. "The difficult decision to reduce the price of the local product was taken despite the fact that production costs have not decreased and that the this price cut will directly impact local pig farmers’ income," a statement from the society said. It is hoped that this reduction in price will result in maintained or increased uptake of Maltese pork by local processors... Читать дальше...

While Malta’s external sustainability has improved, access to alternative sources of finance for SMEs is still limited and competitiveness can further benefit from the removal of structural bottlenecks, the European Commission’s country specific report for Malta states. The report says that the emergence of export-oriented services has boosted net external trade, resulting in a surplus in the current account balance. It says that the public debt ratio is lower than the euro area average and approaching the 60 per cent-of-GDP threshold... Читать дальше...

The Valletta 18 event is already having a positive impact on Valletta, a survey commissioned by the V18 Foundation has found. Announcing the finding yesterday during a one-day seminar, Culture Minister Owen Bonnici said 81 per cent of respondents believe that Valletta was changing for the better and 82 per cent that Valletta 2018 was having a positive impact on its image. Interest in Valletta 2018 was high, with 71 per cent stating they were likely to attend some of the events, Dr Bonnici said, adding... Читать дальше...

A wall of consumer and business angst is standing in the way of euro zone economic recovery and there are renewed signs of deflation in the bloc's biggest countries to worry the European Central Bank. Data from across the 19-member currency bloc will put pressure on the ECB to take strong additional policy actions at its meeting in March on top of the unprecedented stimulus it is already giving. Reports of falling prices in Germany, France and Spain along with an array of weak sentiment surveys for... Читать дальше...

Gianni Infantino is FIFA's ninth president after being elected at the world governing body's extraordinary congress in Zurich. The FIFA presidential election entered a second round of voting for the first time in 42 years after Infantino of Switzerland secured more backing than pre-vote favourite Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim al Khalifa of Bahrain in the first round, when a two thirds majority was required to win. A simple majority of more than 50 per cent - 104 votes - was sufficient for victory in the second round. Читать дальше...

Civil Liberties Minister Helena Dalli has fractured her ankle, the government said in a statement. The minister was injured following an incident at her home last night. The government said the minister was recovering at Mater Dei Hospital and will be indisposed for the coming days.

Doubts on the credibility of a 13-year-old girl who lost her mother at a very young age led to the acquittal of a distant relative who had been charged with sexually abusing her. The police had been alerted on the case in 2011 by government entity Aġenzija Appoġġ, which raised the alarm about two members of the girl’s family, including the accused. The man, whose name cannot be published by court order, was related to the minor’s mother who passed away about 10 years ago due to a terminal illness. Читать дальше...

An 18-year-old man is in critical condition after an accident during football training late yesterday. The police said the Albanian man who lives in Birzebbuga, was playing at Gudja football ground when, at about 7.15pm, he was hit in the head by another player.  He was taken to hospital in an ambulance. A magisterial inquiry is under way.

Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has said more work still needs to be done to police hate speech on the social media site in Germany. Answering a question at a town hall event in Berlin, Mr Zuckerberg said "hate speech has no place on Facebook" and that he had been instituting better controls on monitoring and removing it. German officials have expressed concerns about far-right and other groups using Facebook to spread their messages. Mr Zuckerberg talked personally with chancellor Angela Merkel about the issue last year. Читать дальше...

The share index closed virtually unchanged at 4,528.666 points as the gains registered across four equities offset the declines in two other shares. Week-on-week, the Index advanced by 0.91 per cent on robust trading volumes totalling €2.44 million. Positive sentiment towards RS2 Software continued as the equity touched a new record high of €3.65 before closing at the €3.64,5 level, representing a gain of 0.3 per cent over yesterday’s closing price. A total of 30,100 shares changed hands today. RS2... Читать дальше...

A Meusac core group meeting today discussed the EU single market strategy. During a presentation to core group members, research analyst at the Economy Ministry Philip Vella said that a number of barriers across the EU still persisted in the internal market, such as unjustified standards and restrictions to access to practice certain professions. A number of issues were raised by members representing the constituted bodies, including on justified and unjustified ‘geo-blocking’, the lack of market... Читать дальше...

A handyman who vandalised the façade of a Sliema house after being accused of damaging a cane curtain while he was working next door, has been ordered to perform community work by a Magistrate. The accused, Joseph Grech, 48, from Sliema is well known to the police due to the fact that last year had admitted to stealing €15,000 worth of jewellery, while working as a handy man. The paint-related incident dates back to 2014 when the owner of a house in Depiro Street had complained, that while the accused... Читать дальше...

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has no problem with Minister Konrad Mizzi's company in a blacklisted tax haven because the ultimate beneficiary is a trust in New Zealand. Dr Muscat this afternoon repeated his defence of Dr Mizzi's decision to open an overseas trust that has acquired a company registered in Panama. The Central American country is a tax haven and was blacklisted by the EU last year. Dr Muscat said he would have had a problem had the company not been declared. Asked to say when the company... Читать дальше...

Manchester United and Liverpool, English football's two most decorated clubs, were drawn together in the last 16 of the Europa League today. The arch-rivals have won 38 league titles between them as well as eight European Cups yet both are struggling in the Premier League this season and are unlikely to relish being pitted against each other at this stage of the competition. Bookmakers' favourites Borussia Dortmund were also handed a tricky route into the last eight after being drawn against Tottenham Hotspur... Читать дальше...

A delegation of officials from the sports sector in Gozo has visited the European parliament on the invitation of Maltese MEPs Therese Comodini Cachia and Marlene Mizzi to discuss the challenges they are facing and to acquaint themselves with opportunities that the EU offers to support their efforts. The delegation met European Commission officials during which meeting access to Erasmus+ funding and sport events and initiatives from which they could benefit was discussed. The Gozitan sports officials... Читать дальше...